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Friday, February 13, 2015

Interactive Friction: Far Cry 3: Episode 14: Titular Stealth Mission

First off, I want to point out that this is 200th post on this blog. Honestly, when I started out in 2012, I didn't think I'd stick with it this long. Nor did I believe I'd really have a chance to get good at it. Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, and I hope you continue to do so in the future.

Now, in this episode, we begin our trek into the second half of the game. More importantly, I teach someone who writes articles as a hobby how to correctly use the word "titular."

I love the stupidity of the scene at the start of this episode because of how stupid it is. Jason is basically telling his girlfriend Liza, "I'm comfortable being a completely selfish monster, and I can only do that by staying here." Then, Liza basically allows him to do it without even questioning it for a minute. This only makes sense if she's secretly trying to kill Jason (and I would have to respect her for that), or if Jason already showed signs of being this much of an unrepentant bastard before they landed on the island. Otherwise, it comes off as just plain silly.

And Sam brings up a good point. If Jason and company left, what would Hoyt do? Citra might try to stop him, but Jason's apparently (somehow) become a good enough warrior to fend them off by himself. Hoyt, at this point in the story, does not even know what Jason looks like. Sure, we can look him up, and send his men after him in the states, but that's far too many resources to spend on someone who is not even a problem anymore. It further strengthens our argument that the story should have ended there.

Despite being the worst part of the game, we do end up getting the best mode of transportation here, which is the wingsuit. Even though I am a harsh critic of this game, I have to admit that the wingsuit is extremely fun to use. Jumping off a cliff and gliding through the air just feels good to do.

The other good thing this section does is introduce us to Sam. Aside from Vaas and Liza, Sam is one of the best characters in the game. He's a tough looking German dude and knows it. Basically, he utilizes commonly-assumed stereotypes of tattooed German's to infiltrate Hoyt's operation and make people assume he's tough shit. In actuality, he's working for the CIA in an attempt to take down the whole operation. The setup alone gives him a lot more depth than most of the other character's in the game. On top of that, he's given some good lines and his voice actor sounds like he's enjoying the role. You'll see as we go on what I mean by that.

Aside from that, most of the major story beats on the second island will be disappointment after disappointment. It's pretty much all downhill from here.